Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken

Greetings from Lancaster, PA. We are here (that means you can all start parting at home.) The ride was long, but uneventful. We went via Newburg (NY), it avoids “the city” but always feels long. Half way thru NJ I complained we should just go thru the city. M. pointed out it would not be quicker. I know this. I’ve traveled this route way too much not to know this, but it still seems wrong. Distance wise it’s soooo much better to go thru NY…. Sigh.

We did have one slight change in plans. G. the Mazda is home, and we are in the Cube. This is a mixed bag. People do not like to get passed by a cube. They do, however, like to stop, stare, point, and speed passed to see who’s in it. Though we have not had paparazzi yet. (You all know that time the woman nearly caused a 4 car accident so she could take a picture of us in our car on her phone. She was driving also at the time.?)

Our big travel adventure was forgetting the camera. (It was on my list! I don’t know what happened.) So we stopped to pick one up. The sales person left much to be desired, she kept asking us questions, the wrong questions, like is this your only camera? When what she wanted to know was if we wanted the additional warranty. By the time we were checking out, M. finally commented she didn’t ask the one question she should have: she explained, she didn’t ask to see M.’s id b/c she thought the “Please ask for Id” written on the back of his credit card was “a different signature written over one that was there.” Ohhkay….

But now we have a spare inexpensive camera in case we find any precocious Kodak moments. The rest of the trip was long but uneventful. Though, we did get to drive past not one, but two amusement parks. And it is striking how different states “feel” different. While all of CT, NY, NJ and PA are wooded with basically the same kind of trees, if feels different. NJ always reminds me of CT as states. That their license plates read: “The Garden State” always cracks me up (“Because petrochemical refinery state wouldn’t fit on a license plate”).

PA is pretty. I like the flat rolling farmland. It has become very clear to all of us - I don’t like mountains. If I could only find the great planes leading to ocean, I’d be all set. Though I’ve mentioned, I think, in these blogs what I term “the illusion of summer”. Upstate NY has the illusion of summer. Maine too I expect. It’s lush and green, and pretty… and you think, yeah, it’s rural, but it’s so nice. Wouldn’t it be great to be in a farmhouse, with the corn fields around, a breeze blowing those white curtains in the kitchen… and I could blanch whatever I’d just picked from the garden? It sounds so nice - but I know the reality is not the same. I mean, maybe it would be great for a few hours? A day, maybe a week? But then… and what happens the rest of the seasons? When the snow is piling up? Yeah. No. It would not be so charming then. The illusion of summer.

And then we arrived in Lancaster…the motel is quaint (read: older, but clean and will do just fine. It actually still uses keys - real keys - not plastic cards. Of course, it’s run by a very nice Indian family.)

Despite the fact that I was sure he was wrong, M. found the exact restaurant we ate at last time we were here - and it was as I remembered it. Which is to say the best fried chicken I have ever had. It’s only available on a buffet, excuse smorgasbord, usually we think is a bad idea, but in this case… I actually passed over three possible ways to consume cow for this chicken. And have made the pronouncement, we should come here once a year. Eating fried chicken and shoo-fly pie more than once is year might literally kill me. (Or send me into a diabetic coma..  Even I agrees this time, we should not take home a pie.)

We did also find a nice little gallery and an alphabet poster that I thought was going to go to my office (you know that NM or MN problem?), but M. likes it too. We are now contemplating a collection (wall) of alphabet posters. After all - we have the Ghastly Crumb Tinys (Gory’s alphabet - “B is for Basil devoured by Bears…) This posters is less…macabre, each letter has a flower/herb and little woodland animal. The two posters could be a nice juxtaposition.

We have also seen a lot of Amish and their buggies. I feel very bad for these horses. The tar and the cars, it can’t be good for them.

Tomorrow we should head further south and west. The ride better because it will be less interstate, less NJ and not roads we’ve traveled on too many times.